Rain, Hail & SNOW!!

Nick K & Angry braving the Wellington Winter, yes that is snow in the background (Photo by Tiger)

Whacko "The Hardest BL Member" has left the country but despite his absence we toughed it out in the Wellington Southerly and snow today. Just a little post so you know the Bushlove Team can brave this winter cold.


Nick K, Angry & Tiger's ride:
Ride started with a heavy hail storm as we rode along the road from Karori Park to Makara carpark with fingers freezing and ice cream head aches. Headed up Lazyfern then onto Sally Alley. Took Snake Charmer to the summit stopping half way up for some pics in the snow. From the summit headed down Zacs/Varleys and into Wahine. From there did a quick lap of Wrights Hill up Salvation and down Scouts Hall. What a blast!!! Southerly blast that is. All up an hour and a half for us. Not that long but great lulz in the rain.

All tracks were in good condition thanks to some fantastic track building from the Makara Peak Supporters Club and other dedicated track lovers.


Mono's Ride:
Along the tarmac to Karori tunnel then up to the dirt. Got the hail/rain at the bottom of the rollercoaster. As I popped over the seal to head up Carparts it was snowing proper! I hadn’t ridden in snow before, so quite a novelty. Up, then along Carparts extension. Still snowing... At this point I decided I liked the snow more than I liked the hail and rain. Carried on up Hawkins Hill, with the snow getting heavier and thicker. I actually started smiling as I was climbing! HAhaha! Down to Red Rocks (Jeez the wagon wheels make short work of the rutted/rough sections) then along the beach back to Owhiro Bay. Got some nasty hail just as I got to the old quarry – that awesome sideways hail that stings like a mofo. Around the road, marvelling at the cook strait swell smashing into the sea wall, before hitting the tip track. What better way to keep warm?! I actually took it easy for a change (As easy as you can with my granny gear anyway) but still smashed the big ring for the last 600m or so. Fun times. Back down towards the fenceline, and up to Wrights hill. Steamed down Deliverance making use of the 15mm axle a couple of times with some slightly dodgy line choices....


Back past the Makara carpark to Czech out who was around and wash my bike, before heading home for a cuppa and a shower. Just over 2 hours all up, and definitely some of the coldest conditions I’ve ridden in. Loving my new thermal bib tights, and also the new waterproof shell I got. Stopped the hypothermia for sure.

oO------------Oo

Next up on the list for the BLRT is the Hawkins Hill Climb in a weeks time, where you should see a good contingent of Bushlove covering all aspects of this pretegious race. Some details below about the race.

http://www.vorb.org.nz/sport-hawkins-hill-climb-new-date-7th-june-t92661.html

Angry = Road Race
Mono = Mountain Bike (Gear'd)
Tiger = Running (Hold the laughter)
Davo = Chief Mashall


See you all there, should be loads Lulz.

BLRT

Bushlove Hard Bastards

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Davo's 20years Of MTB (Warning - Inlcudes bad haircuts)

I realised to my surprise and delight the other day that this year marks 20 years of me mountainbiking.

It led me to reminisce and gaze skyward with an ever-growing smile as the memories of adventures, friends, races and my bikes came flooding back. So I thought I'd write a short blog about it.

My first bike was a Specialized Hardrock Comp with Suntour running gear. Little did I know that one day I would own the bike of my dreams - The out of reach S-Works! I would never have imagined that if i ever owned such a bike, that my mates would heckle me for having the worst bike in the pack.

It was 1988. I was the youngest of the dudes in my neighbourhood who had mtbs. The other boys were all 1-3 years older than me so I had to keep up. We used to go out on long epics around the South downs in Sussex. We went out for hours but rarely covered huge kms. We used to stop for ages in old quarries and steep forests to test ourselves riding the steep chutes and slopes, and try and do jumps. We were obviously being watched by today's event organisers as our rides were undoubtedly the forerunners of the Red Bull Rampage.

These were the days before Shimano had invented the SPD pedal and Rock Shox RS1's were still in R&D, but close to making it into the MTB mags. We used to get hideously lost and without fail my mate Rich (Stallion) would have to call home from a phone box to get his folks to do his paper round! We'd be crossing farmland, throwing our bikes across drainage streams and taking ambitious running jumps to follow them - hoping we'd find a track or somewhere we knew. There were no mtb parks like we are spoiled with today. So you had to link bits of singletrack together with hauls across farms and country roads, to get a good ride in.



All these capers got us pretty fit and handy on the bikes, so when we saw a local XC race advertised we were keen to give it a crack. And I was onto my third bike, the first Orange Aluminium-O, resplendent in full Deore DX and not long after, was rocking one of mtbing's best inventions - SPD pedals!







I so wish I still had that rad Overend-esque Specialized Jersey.

I won my first race in the Junior class. It was almost flat and consisted of hammering around a field, then doing a spaghetti of wooded singletrack, then repeat about 6 times. I belted round and beat most of the grown-ups in the process. I thought I could get right into this.


I loved it and went on to do a lot of races over the next few years including some rounds of the Southern and National Series', cyclocross races and allsorts. My mates and I all got fairly handy and were riding for shops and clubs and getting flashier bikes. It was a great time and on good weekends we were blessed with wins.

Here Carpethead and Stallion threaten me with the beats after snatching a win from them...


I started racing the 'Sport' class (19+) when I was nearly 18 as I was not getting a competitive enough ride at local races against the other Juniors. My Orange had snapped due to my outrageous hucks and I managed to scrape the pingers together for a nice ride.


I was now riding a budget-blowing Dave Yates custom with all the trimmings including early prototype U.S.E stuff, XTR and even an XTR seatpost that I really wish I still had. It had rigids on of course. Shocks at this stage were still mostly for "gaylords". I ran awesome Diacompe 986 cantilever brakes with the XTR Servowave levers. This combo meant the blocks could be run further from the rims which was great for clearance on the typical muddy 'parcours'. The frame started off in boring black and white but subsequently got resprayed in the team colours of M&J Cycles who I started riding for.


I managed to win a couple of series'. My favourite was the 'Gorrick Winter Series'. It was always muddy and frickin' cold. I moved up to 'Expert' class eventually and never got any wins, but got top 3 a couple of times. The extra laps led me to get a shock and become an official gaylord, although everyone was doing it so I didn't feel too bad. I had an AMP Research fork. A truly shit fork, but with good hype behind it. I blew out the damper every outing and had a steady stream of replacement parts being delivered under warranty. I eventually got a Marz' XC500 at the same time Rune Hoydahl was giving everyone the good news in the Grundig World Cup on the same fork. I looked like the bollocks on my super factory custom bike. It even had my name on the top tube. What an arrogant wanker I must have been.


I was finding it harder to get any better against some strong fellas and I'd also started to have enough of it. I never 'knew what I wanted to be when I grew up' but had always wanted to travel. I took a job as a mountainbike guide in the U.S, down in North Carolina, guiding teenagers and some adult groups around the Blue Ridge Mountains. The fancy mtb got sold for a song, the day before I flew out and the meagre pingers helped buy a crap car, of which I burned the engine out driving up to high trail heads for climbing trips. Shame.

I did the guiding for 3 seasons, 3 years in a row and did hardly any races in the that time. There were even times when I didn't own a bike. I was rockclimbing a lot more and long road trips featuring hiking and climbing were the norm. The riding in the Blue Ridge was the best I have ever done, and was all on a stock Giant Sedona rigid with STX. Its not the bike that makes great riding. The rides we did were amazing and would regularly have a dozen epic river crossings, huge waterfalls and large Black Rat snakes to toy with and encourage people to bunny hop. The climbs were long and the downhills lasted ages. Was the time of my life on the bike. Can't find my pics. If I do I will pop a couple on here.

I moved to NZ for a while to work and travel and met my now wife, Amie, in Tauranga. I got a cheap bike and got back into the riding. I even did a couple of races including something in Rotorua. But I was still mainly rockclimbing.

Amie and I moved back to the UK and I used my cheap old Marin Indian Fire Trail to great effect, scouring the local trails around Bristol and the new MTB parks in Wales, which had sprung up whilst I was abroad. The riding was mint and it was great to get out with my mates who I started riding with many years earlier. Their bikes were flasher. Mine had gone downhill as I was a lowly student, having decided at age 24 that what I wanted to be when I grew up, was an accountant. Ooops.

I did a bunch of the huge MTB 100km Enduros in the Welsh mountains. These events were mint. The best i did was a 17th from a field of over 1000. These were big events and they made me want to get back into racing. Amie and I did some great bike tours in Europe in this time too. We'd love to do it again one day. It is amazing moving around new countries with all your gear, not relying on anyone and doing whatever you want.

Before we had Ella, I realised that I needed to 'stock up' on toys as once she was born we'd be in the poor house and saving for a home. I got an S-Works hardtail frame off Ebay and built it up.

Amazing bike. I've run it geared, SS and its even won some races. It is still my geared bike and I can't imagine selling it. I'd always lusted after one since I had my hands on my first ever bike catalogue when I brought my Hardrock all those years before.

I moved back to NZ with Amie and our daughter, Ella, who we had in the UK. I immediately started enjoying the riding around Wellington's trails and got into a couple of PNP races, then some more races, met some really good cobbers, and the Bushlove Racing Team started. And there we go.



See y'all on those awesome trails!

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Shanksy can talk a good race.......

......but much like in the sack, he failed to deliver once more.

This has no real bearing on my own race, or report other than to simply rub it in.

Well what can be said. Bushlove defo looked the hottest at the moonride, but fell a fraction short of our own mighty and lofty expectations. With Kabush staying home, as his wife was planning to wax shapes into his hairy back, the Bushlove team was down 1 rider from the get go. We knew we had slow boy, sorry Token, but we'd figure we'd just have to carry him. Dr Nick can always be relyed upon to go ok, but he's forgotten how to use gears again, so on the flat moonride course....could, but can't go faster. So it was really going to fall to the mighty Tiger and Calves of Impending Doom to bring it off with our sheer pace and prettiness.

This failed

Upon arriving in the sulfuric P-infested town of Roto-vegas, my nostrils started to dribble. And then dribble faster. I had outright forgotten (as per normal) that I get a bit of hayfever when in vegas, but never fear for anti-histemines are here (after a trip to the pharmacy). Although I seemed to be going thru tissue's at a prodigous rate. Come the morning after ......pretty much no sleep at all it was time to dress in the lcyra, and new bushove lycra at that. After much self love, the team headed off, and set up camp. The plan was this, The most experienced would head of first, ok, that's me by about a decade. Ho, and I'm fast too. Sweet, sorted, tIger would be my tag partner and Dr Nick and Token would follow on from their spooning the night before. Maing, we so have this shit.

And come the start we did......well untill 5 meteres before the turn at the end of the first straight where I had been smashing it out in front. Then it all turned bad. My fufu valve went less than a minute in. Hoards screamed past me. Then clive did, ok I can handle that, then chickenman did, ooooooooh that hurt. and then even slower people did. My lungs hurt lots, my throat even more, someone had stolen the calves of Impending Doom and replaced them with fibreglass copies. Into the track and it improved, slightly........for a second.Felt like I was going backwards, and it only got worse. So after hte slowest first lap I've ever ever ever done, I handed straight off to Tiger. And sat down and hung my head in shame/complete exhaustion.
Ok so it appeared that it was a bit of hayfever, combined with the flu. Win!!!

Hopingthat I would get better when it warmed up some I didn't take the next lap and sat out. But when it became apparent that Angry was ahead of us....something had to be done. Tiger did 2 quickies, 1 more than he usaully does at home, and I stepped back into the ring. Luckily the big wheeler rolls mint on grass, so a nice sedatish run into the lap was on the cards.

This lasted to the first corner and the throttle opened up a tad. Was feeling ok, the nose sucked, it felt like I was swallowing razor blades, but the legs were feeling good, caught and passed Thomas the Tank Engine who was cramping. Sweet for clive, suck for Thomas. Kept the hammer on. Came thru on a good apce for the first lap, and kept going, I was in a zone. CArved my way thru the paddocks, with many cheers for Bushlove, till the jamis tents, when jeers about being behind Clive came thru. Cheers Shane. Caught clive, about halfway thru the lap, can't remember much other than pain in my throat, hardly being able to breathe, and the knowledge that I needed to put a gap into clive. I did. Handed over to ...token??, and pretty much collasped. Things were going better now, but I still felt like shit.

Did another double banger, but felt so bad afterwards, I crept into the back of the van for a sleep. I was wiped. Team Angel Michele came and covered me in a sleeping bag from our other Team Angel, Ash (of Bushlove fame and glory) *but lets not also forget Team Angel Dangerous Dan who was there pretty much as Eye Candy for Dr Nick and Token*
Luckily Michele had taken some body guarding courses and kept token from waking me up. Bad Token, Bad!!!!

After waking up just before dark I cooked me some cranksy's which warmed the cockles, and my stomach. and headed out for another Double banger. Yet again throwing down some good times despite that fact that I was scrapping the bottom of the barrel energy wise. And I must say, with our Monkey-lectric lights, looking far far cooler than everyone else, cept maybe that one dude with led's ALLLLLL over his bike.

I think somewhere in there Shanksy had gotten over his doom and gloom and actually went out on a few laps for us. But after a 2.5 hour, I can't be bothered DNF, he ended up fail for the weekend, even with the late effort.

Everyone pulled some good laps at the end, Tiger with a legend double banger leaving me with the honours of the last lap. Knowing how much time was left I was shocked at how early and how fast in the last lap I was passing some people. There was a lot of people that wouldnt of finished their laps for sure. But Jebus sure does love a trier.

So in the end not too bad, seeing as we had 2 people that can't use gears, a swine flu victim and a god. to pull us thru. Coach Lisa is obviously driving our Tones hard.
thanks to the Dark Lord, Bushlove, Burkes (for the love bus), Team Angels Michele, Ash and Dan, our hot hotpool bushlove fans (I'd go for paternity tests, there were several bushlovers in the pool at the same time), the NON jeerers from the Jamis tents, and all the awesome people that were happy to move outa the way during the race.

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Dutch Rudders Keep Bushlove On Course At The Moonride

The Bushlove Team had spent several weeks looking forward to the Moonride trip. It would be the first bona fide Team event we had done and would no doubt be a fantastic road trip.

We had designs on the North Island MTB Club 12hr Champs but knew we would get strong competition from teams like Hamilbogun and Manawatu. We lost Sharpie at short notice as the Playboy and Star Trek channels were doing free viewing over the weekend, which left us with fine Bushies: Tiger, Sixpack Chan, Slackshanks and Dr Love to contend.

In the solo class we had endurance athlete supreme - Clive Bushlove, and endurance athlete epic fail - Me.

We all woke nice and early to get on the road and away from my place by 8am. Well, every one but Slacky got up nice and early. After a bit of repacking and appreciation of my new lawn, Slacky, Boner Toner, Angry and me got going in the mighty Burkes van (thanks for the vehicle Burkes. Awesome kit). Inbetween mouthfuls of McMuffins, we regaled each other with tails of daring and adventure and discussed the benefits of the Dutch Rudder system, tire choice and plotted to ensure Nick and Sixpack had to share a double bed.

We arrived in Vegas about 3pm and sorted registration before pitching the tent (Bushlovers always pitch a huge tent). We had driven through some pretty heavy rain and where expecting a repeat of last year’s mud bath Moonride, but the rain stopped on our arrival and gave it a break over night too, much to the relief of the 24hr riders who would be out there bedding the track in while we slept.

We had a cabin booked at the Rotovegas Thermal Holiday Park and it didn't quite have the bed allocation required. We had to cater for the modesty and honour of our good friend Michelle which meant that the best option would be for her to take the fold out and two boys take the last double. We bagged the bunks and laughed our way through a large spaghetti bolagnaise. Thanks Troods for the soup tip. A dollop of Tony's soured cream was unexpected but a lovely addition to the cuisine.

The Moonride was made a bit extra special for us as the fancy new Bushlove Racing team jerseys had arrived in the nick of time, thanks to splendid efforts from Robin at Tinelli. They cleared customs on the Wednesday avo and we got them couriered directly to the Park. Only Tiger and I knew about it and we surprised the chaps by casually wearing them to dinner. They turned out great. Our studdliness was tripled as we eased them on.

Nick and Kah arrived in Nick's new Subaru (complete with Bushlove.com stickers) in time to police up the left over spag bol and come to the hotties. We informed them of the sleeping arrangements and before reacting with the typical 'No way, you're joking right', Nick and Kah exchanged that bashful look that simply said "We've been waiting for this moment..."

The hotpools were amazing. Just the ticket. We lulzed it up for about two hours and churned though many other patrons. We were joined by a fine pair of young ladies, who after quietly chatting away and ignoring our rants, inquired "are you the Bushlove team?". Gold.

It seemed we had genuine followers of the blog. People who were not either us or blood relatives. We introduced ourselves and found that Lisa and her friend whose name we shamefully forgot, were racing in the Lunartics team the following day. We meant to inform these hot new Bushlove groupies that just being in a hot pool with the team is grounds for a pregnancy test, such is the strength of Bushlove's virility, otherwise they might end up having a short, ginger, Asian, four-eyed, balding baby in 6 months time (Bushlove babies gestate faster FTW).

We headed back to the cabin and headed to the bunks, except the Dr and Sixpack Chan, who retired to their private room to make the beast with two backs. Ash, Danny Boy and Michelle arrived a little later and after the hello's we nodded off to the rhythmic tapping of Nick and Kah's headboard.

A fine crisp, sunny day dawned and we were well up for it! Breaskfasted, Vaselined and freshly inflated, we headed to the race ground to set up the rest of the gear. It was a 10am kick off and began with a 2km road stretch. Hell on the SS. I could only cringe as from the gun I got swarmed by any weekender with a big ring. On the way back to the race HQ I was spinning madly and tucking into the slipstream of nicely rounded middle aged ladies who I am not used to sharing the first minutes of a race with normally. I managed to take a lot of people once the pace slowed though and got into the swing of things.

My new bike (see post coming soon) was awesome. It was carving through the forest and doing everything it was told beautifully. The course conditions were good. Damp, grippy and well compacted. Excellent riding.

And then it all fell to bits. Not the bike, but my motivation. After 6 laps I was bored to bits. I did a lap on Nicko's crosser which was good, to spark myself up, but to no avail. I ended up pulling the pin at lunchtime! Not my usual style. I think the problem was that I had not psyched myself up at all and was just entered 'on a whim'. You really need your head set for these things and I didn't. I felt guilty that I didn't feel upset or gutted. I felt fresh and was riding fine. Shanks were good. Just a head fail. Not happened before. Was about time maybe!



So that's my race done. I directed all my attention towards supporting the boys and my main maing Clive Bushlove (as written on his plate). Clive was doing great and I spent the rest of the day sorting his bottles, fuel, bike and splits. It would have been tricky for the boys to do this as well as racing and recovering so it worked out well. And best of all, made me look useful and not like a slacker, who should really hand back their new Bushlove shirt and cook the sausages, but not get to eat one.
The boys were all looking magnificent in their new kit. We were getting lots of shout outs from friends and maybe folk who had seen the blog (there must be some folk other than us making up the 4,000 plus hits a month). Thanks for your support y'all!

The boys were doing hard turns, mostly double laps, and were coming back in flattened by their efforts. They were riding strong and doing us proud. We were hovering around tenth team overall and third in the Open Men's category. These positions held into the evening and the chaps had to maintain their pace if they wanted to be up on the podium in 4hrs time.



Before evening Tiger headed out after stating his intention to nail a very fast couple of laps. He turned in an 18.50 which was outstanding and the fastest the team put out that day.

Darkness fell and we knuckled down to maintaining the placing. I turned in a couple of reasonable laps and had a great time pimping the new Monkey Electric wheel lights. They were throwing down some mean patterns with their super bright coloured LEDs. Tones and Slacky also had sets on the back wheels and we must have made quite a spectacle. Thanks to Mono I had a grunty light to use which was unsurprisingly superior to my Mentos chewing gum pot DIY effort. Cheers Mono!

10pm drew close and I went over to the finish to welcome Angry in. It was awesome seeing the fast teams still sending riders into the woods with 20mins to go! I saw Mr Singlespeed, Garth Weinberg absolutely fly by, obviously chosen as his team's anchor man. Good choice. Angry came across and looked like someone who was ecstatic to finish a race but who had also been shagged by a rhino. I got out a seat for him and was quickly alerted by a marshal that I was on the track. Doh.


Ricky steamed the last lap for the team and finished with less than 5mins to spare. Perfect. The boys were all true warriors and secured themselves the 3rd place in the Open Mens category, something that we didn't really think would happen, especially without strongman Mono in the fold. I think we got tenth overall from all teams which itself was great considering the excellent teams who competed. We did miss out on the North Island MTB Club 12hr Champs team trophy though. Pipped by 1.5laps by a strong team from Hamiltron. Those Hamilboguns sure rode well. Congratulations and respect, should you be reading.

Prizegivng was strangely almost on time and it was a treat to see angry and the team collecting their wares in the new Bushlove jerseys. A great end to a memorable day.


We returned to the cabin to find Michelle asleep on the couch, so made her wake up whilst we drank beers and talked boyishly and noisily about the day's shennagans. I could tell she was pleased. We jumped through the shower and into the bunks, whilst Kah and the Dr headed to their room for round two.

More hot-tubbing and lulz followed the next morning before we struck camp and headed for Welly. The drive was wet and long. We bantered about the weekend's efforts and learned mechanical tips from the wizard Slackspanner, pondered the merits of chain lubes and thought about the next team event we could do. No more soloing for me though. I think our next one will be the Wild Wellington. Nice and local.

Congrats to all our friends who did so well over the weekend. Charlotte Ireland took the women's solo 12hr, placing fifth overall! Lisa Morgan, coach to the stars, won the women's 6hr solo, with a cracking 6th overall. Pete Marshall (vert) suffered like a dog in the 24hr solo and put himself in hospital (probably just to score a bed bath) - Good job soldier. The Wellington boys in the Searletech team did v.well too, with 2nd Open class, 3rd Overall.

Well done if you are still awake.

Watch this space for upcoming posts including - My New Bike and Davo-The Early Years.


Now for Clive's tall tales......

The 12 hour starts with a 2km road to separate the men from the boys (and singlespeeders) , something Davo was not looking forward to and the BLRT team stuck up Ricky as their first rider as he is used to carnage, (usually of his own making). The race started off into a sprint I stuck behind Thomas as he was my target for the day having thrashed me last year , was in a good roadie tuck and was probably in the first 10 into the forest.

12 Hour Solos are very mentally tough races (hate to think about the 24), but I knew I had at least 7 hours of good race pace in me so settled into a rhythm of "on your rights" and chased Thomas down and promptly hooked my brake lever on a tree and stacked, nice one but no injuries so back on the bike but had lost the lead pack and Thomas.

Smashed out a few quickish laps being wary to not smash it too hard as the day was long. I was pleased to catch up to Thomas after about 2 hours, just spotting him ahead in the pits, I snuck past as he grabbed food from his support crew, then opened the taps to pull out about a 10 minute lead which I held for the next 4 hours, during most of that time I believed I was in first place as there were no other Solos ahead of me, but the boys had checked the results and I was in fact coming 2nd as there was another Solo racing without wearing the Solo hat which is legal, but a little sneaky as I didn’t even know where or who this person was. Davo found out and started giving out splits and I was holding him at about a 3 minute lead until early evening then Davo for some reason lost track of him for a few laps but when he did find him he had stuck on over 10 minutes which was quite a surprise given the stage in the race, so concentrated on trying to bring this lead down but it was just too much and I couldn’t really do much more with the lap traffic as a lot of riders had slowed up considerably, my legs felt great and I was still climbing the pinches in middle/big chain ring out of the saddle as the team was feeding me (sometimes forcibly) very well. Thomas at this stage had fallen back quite far and I lapped him again at his feed station getting food so it was going to be Hamish 1st, Angry just under 10 minutes behind in 2nd, Thomas 3rd.



Despite the result being the same as last year this year was a far better race for me, lap times where consistent, but I don’t think I will be back next year, i just forgot how mentally and physically tough it is.

Ups to Coach Joel for prepping me very well for the event and to Ash and Michelle for feeding the first stages and coming out to cheer on course later on. But for me Davo's efforts as support after taking over from Ash & Michelle was outstanding and was pre-empting what I needed very well! Couldn’t have done it without you Davo! (Aw you big flirt, it was a pleasure - Ed) I was awesome also to hear teh Tigs yelling Bushlove through the forest, woot buddy!.

So 237kms later its was a 1st Club Champs, 2nd Solo overall, with 3rd Open for BLRT team, awesome effort for BLRT.

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The Only Bushlover racing, Craaaazy-man!!

After a motivating text from Davo first thing in the morning I was ready to go. “In hard buddy, I’ll be thinking of you”. Gold! love predictive texting or is that what Davo really meant, hmmm confused and scared at the same time.

Being the only Bushlover racing in the weekend I felt a little pressure to uphold our name, coupled with the fact that The Crazyman is a race that means a little more to me than just another day at the office. It was the first mountain bike race I had ever raced so has a special place in my short mountain bike career.

The day turned out to be better than I could have imagined. The week leading up to the race the weather was crap, arse, rain, wind and bloody cold. But the 2nd of May turned out a fantastic one, no rain, little wind, lets race!!!

Dan Clendon ( my team runner) took off on the run surrounded by a sea of skinny legs and shorts so marginal they could only be described as togs, togs, togs, undies! The God Father (Marco Renalli) went one step further wearing shorts from the 60’s showing waaaaay to much leg, but I fear this was his ploy to scare any runner into submission.

The next time I saw Dan he was about 50min into the run out in front and looking strong. So it was into the car and over to the transition in Wainui for me, for bit of a warm up and to slap on the lycra. Dan came in with a good 5mins lead over the field. Off I went caning the first hill to the water tower and on to the top of the ridge, I felt great, the bike was great. It was time to settle in and give this one shit. Out in front by myself it ended up being a solo race, but that did not stop me from spending the whole time talking to myself just waiting for Gav McCarthy (Gavatron) to pop around the corner and steam me down like a council worker eating a pie.

I made it to the river bank and still no Gav in site, so I locked out both the front and rear shocks on the Merida and tucked into my roadie stance. Wahoo I was flying, all the way along the gravel road to the finish line. First rider to cross the line and first Duathlon Team. We were stoked!

The Merida 5000 full carbon dream worked a treat, you can find a nice review about this bike in the latest New Zealand Mountain Biker magazine and believe you me the write up is no lie, quick, stiff and is all win! Looks hot too ;)















The course itself was in great condition, dry, fast and well cleared. With an interesting 2-3mtr drop in the middle that riders had to get off and clamber down with bike in hand... or so I thought!!! at the finish line I heard someone mention that after I went through the marshal at this station was lowering peoples bikes down with a rope... bugger missed out on that one.

Some highlights for me were being able to hold Gavatron to a 5min defecit, when I was expecting him to tear me another… well lets just say where my bike seat sits and Dan and I setting a new Crazyman Team Duathlon course record. But the one that put the biggest smile on my face was definitely when on the way up to receive our win placing the commentator mentioned how well this “Bushlove Team” are doing and have been seen winning lots of events lately including the Grand Traverse a few weeks before! BLR FTW.

Big ups to all competitors who turned out on the day, its a great race. Smiles all around including the biggest smile of all from Michelle Cole who finally won a spot prize, only to find out it was a Merida hydration back pack with green flames on it. Rock on, wish I had one.

Lataz Blog Dudes & Dudettes

Tiger

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Blood, Sweat and Lack of Gears. SS Nats

Being a bit lazy (and my computer crashing losing my prev post) I'll keep it short and sweet.

The race started with a run of a few hundred metres and the pandemonium of shifted bikes. Luckily Mrs K had located my bike so I got out on to the course in the top 5. The race started with a few km’s of gravel road to spread the field out. With this not being my strong point I lost a few places including one to fireroad specialist Mono on his big wheels. Some great singletrack followed getting me in the mood for what would be a great race. Coming down old chevy I came across Mono looking a little worse for wear. It turns out he had an epic spill due the highly technical nature of the trail and subluxed his shoulder. Knowing how much I charge he turned down my expert medical advice so I continued on with my race. Full respect to the big man for showed his hardness and pushing on to a bloody good result. 

Despite the drizzle it was surprising hot so looked forward to the first beer stop. Last year had made the mistake of not taking all the shortcuts, a move I wouldn’t repeat this year. The first can of summit went down well and I even got most of it in my mouth. Heading out onto the second lap I let Cabin pass although unfortunately saw him again a few hundred meters up the road with a snapped chain effectively ending his race.  I then fell into a bit of a funk on my second lap after not being able keep up with the big guns. Towards the end of this lap I got caught by Vaughn Phillipson which turned into a good thing as we had a great back and forth race till the finish when I managed to get the better of him by a few seconds. As always the titus rode like a dream and a had a bloody good time.

So I ended up in 6^th place which I was pretty stoked with. Was a big improvement on my 15^th last year and only 1.21 down on defending champ and ss legend Garth Weinberg. The class of the field really stepped it up this year with number of top xc jeybois, triathletes and filthy roadies entered. While its great seeing ss being taken a bit more seriously the unnecessary appeals and controversy weren’t especially for a race which is all about the lol’s.

A big thanks to the organizers for putting on a cracking race. They picked a great course that although no where as challenging as last year (so probably not suiting experienced single speeders as much) was one I think everyone could enjoy. Lots of competitors got into the spirit of the event with costumes and it looks like everyone had a great time. I will defiantly be back next year.

 

 

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